We took the first steps toward reforming our tax code to attract new businesses and jobs which has already resulted in more than 100,000 new private sector jobs.

We, working together, Republicans and Democrats, saved the Unemployment Compensation System, saved three refineries, and are close to winning a $4 billion dollar petrochemical plant in the state's west.

We ended the inheritance tax on family farms, while preserving more farmland.

We passed the most comprehensive environmental and safety regulations on gas drilling in the nation. This progress is even more remarkable when we see what has happened at the federal level.

Washington has driven the nation to the edge of the fiscal cliff and seems intent on keeping us there with its inability, or unwillingness, to address exactly the kinds of issues that we have solved here in Pennsylvania.

We solved our own "fiscal cliff" before it even had a name.

Over the past two years, we have saved the average Pennsylvania, two income family of four, more than $2,500 in state taxes by holding the line on spending.

Meanwhile, the federal government is raising the payroll tax by two percent, costing the average family an additional $1,000 each year.

If we keep faith with one more round of reforms, we can move from a time of recovery to an era of growth and prosperity.

We can make certain that our pension plans are sound and that hard working employees, when they retire, will receive the pensions we promised and they earned.

At the same time, we can free up hundreds of millions of dollars to care for Pennsylvanians in need and to educate our young.

We can begin a program to rebuild our roads and bridges, a program not for this moment alone, but for future generations, so governors and legislators years from now will not face a crumbling infrastructure.

We can make certain our workers, our economy, and our public safety are protected for our lifetimes and those beyond.

We can bring Pennsylvania into the 21st century by giving choice and convenience to consumers of spirits, wine and beer, at the same time generating $1 billion for our schools.

And we can do all of this without abandoning the basic principle that I know Majority Leader Turzai and I agree on: that we spend no more than we have.

I believe we are "this close" to forever changing Pennsylvania for the better.

Even in the hardest times, we believed in better days.

We knew that our work ethic our resources and our unique geography placed us in the center of the New Industrial Revolution as surely as our ideals placed us in the center of the American Revolution.

We now have it within our grasp at this moment to use our enterprise our imagination and our faith in ourselves to forge a new Pennsylvania. This is not just our goal, this is our responsibility.

Thank you and may God bless you, our commonwealth and the United States of America.